Read More

Sergeant Mike Templeman was forced to justify having a coffee break with colleagues (Image: Rick Byrne)

Now, Sgt Templeman has revealed the hardships of being out on the beat and how he and his colleagues often have to ditch food to respond.

He told the BBC: "It's not happened that often to me. But I will engage with people and ask them how they expect us to… we are human as well and need refreshments.

"If someone says something like this I ask them if they have a lunch break.

"I think some people think we shouldn't because we should be out working constantly and some people do to see if they can get a rise out of a police officer, which wasn't going to happen on this occasion."

He added that there are many occasions when police have to dash off to respond to incidents leaving food half-eaten.

He said: "We cannot tell the communications centre that we are eating and cannot go to something.

"One of the reasons I encourage all my staff to have their rest out is because we are visible and we can respond quicker to jobs."

Read More

(Image: Rick Byrne)

Sgt Templeman's tweeted this in response to the criticism: "7 1/2 hours into an extremely busy shift with no breaks and a couple of the team managed a quick coffee between jobs, but drank it in the shop in order to respond to any other incidents, while dutifully ignoring the ‘What a waste of my taxes’ comment as we left,' he said.

"They need to look after themselves. If you were to get a police officer to attend a particular call to service that you require them to be dealing then you would expect them to be in a condition where they could be at the utmost of their professional game by taking refreshments as we do."

This time last year Sgt Templeman rescued a man who ran out of fuel in the Lincolnshire Wolds as the Beast from the East brought heavy snow and freezing conditions.

He also rescued the man's daughter's birthday cake and also discovered another person who was unconscious in a ditch during the storms.

Follow Lincolnshire Live

Follow Lincolnshire Live on Facebook - Like our Facebook page to get the latest news stories in your feed and join in the lively discussions and comments.